Energy: The former Golden State is floating in debt, even as it sits on two-thirds of America's shale oil reserves locked in a formation four times the size of the one that sparked North Dakota's economic boom.

North Dakota is now the largest oil producer in the country after Texas with a monthly oil output of about 20 million barrels. North Dakota's oil boom accounts for 11% of U.S. oil production, and it is the impetus behind the state's $3.8 billion surplus and an unemployment rate of just 3.2%, the lowest in the nation.

California is not running a surplus, but it is sitting on a lot more oil than is contained in the Bakken shale formation North Dakota straddles. Covering 1,750 square miles from southern to central California, the Monterey shale formation has untapped deposits estimated at 15.4 billion barrels, according to the United States Energy Information Administration.

Until recently, the complex geology of the formation has made exploration and extraction prohibitively expensive.

But as with oil from the Bakken shale in North Dakota and natural gas extracted from the Marcellus formation in the Northeast, technological advances have unleashed a bounty of riches, pushing proven reserves upward and smashing the myth of peak oil.

The key technology behind the boom is hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in which fluids are injected into the porous rock under high pressure to fracture the rock and release the oil or natural gas, which can then be pumped to the surface.

Combined with horizontal drilling, great stores of energy can be released with a minimal footprint.

California holds the record of the most ignorant ass hats in the Country. The collection of the most stupid, Hollywood holds the record. Sacrament’s foundation is so pure hard left of the left that the entire city stinks. Could have been the greatest State in the Country but will never come back. Can’t get rid of the garbage. Sorry so hard on this bunch is ignorant nitwits but had to be said.

Covering 1,750 square miles from southern to central California, the Monterey shale formation has untapped deposits estimated at 15.4 billion barrels, according to the United States Energy Information Administration.

15
posted on 02/05/2013 5:08:55 PM PST
by spokeshave
(The only people better off today than 4 years ago are the Prisoners at Guantanamo.)

California has ALWAYS had the means to create their own prosperity, they just WON’T.

Blessed with the broadest array of natural resources any political subdividion on the planet enjoys, somehow they have attracted a mind-set that gleefully proceeds to deny the exploitation of even one bit of it. True, in the earlier rush to make the most of what they could extract from the earth and mold into new fabrications, they went to some excesses that for a time made the LA Basin almost uninhabitable, what with the overcrowding and poor control of industrial wastes, and caused whole mountains to be washed away in the haste to extract gold, but now, with time to reflect on how to proceed a little more prudently and with attention to secondary consequences, all of the extraction industries and processing of the materials may be done with an acceptable level of by-products, which in themselves can be turned into an additional source of new products and services.

But like sulking children, the residue left with the earlier widespread exploitations is now “somebody else’s” problem, and they won’t, they just WON’T, allow it to happen again.

Just as a single example, California is no longer self-sufficient in production of electric power, refusing to build generation plants within the state, but preferring to buy power generated elsewhere, some from as far away as Canada. This necessarily drives up the price in the surrounding states, as they must compete for the available killowatts on the grid, and since electric power cannot be stored, that puts stress on the entire grid as distant plants are called in for additional power, or switched off because of a fluctuation in demand.

Natural gas power generation plants COULD be set up, on the ready, and would supply the peak power demands. The nature of their operation is such that these plants can spool up and be on line in MINUTES, where it may take a day or more for more conventional steam plants to pick up the load. More importantly, the same fast-response generation stations can be cut out of the grid as the demand drops, also unlike a steam plant, which takes another day to cool out.

But no, there is a superstitious fear of C-A-R-B-O-N D-I-O-X-I-D-E, a mysterious demon that will cause everybody to drop writhing on the ground and gasping for breath.

I believe that the global Left does want these energy resources in the United States, but that they are hiding behind environmental groups to stop the current constitutional republic that is occupying this continent from exploiting the resources.

They are using environmental extremism to, one-by-one, close off America's natural resources from our own use, strangling our economy and crippling our growth. If America were ever driven to finally use our resources, we'd grow strong again - on our terms - which the global Left cannot allow.

Just watch. If the United States as it is currently constituted ever falls, the Left will rush in to take those natural resources for themselves, that they denied us.

That's my conspiracy theory.

-PJ

18
posted on 02/05/2013 5:14:30 PM PST
by Political Junkie Too
(If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)

The Monterey/Santos shale formations span an area of about 1,750 square miles and hold 1,000  3,000 feet thick shale deposits, located 8,000 to 14,000 feet underground. These formations hold an estimated 15.4 billion barrels of oil.

At some point in the next four years or perhaps a little longer if the Left things they have sufficient control of the voting machines, I expect nationalization of energy so that the Government can get the total income from it. Of course that revenue will begin an incessant decline at that point as Enco et al become PEMEXUSA.

At some point in the next four years or perhaps a little longer if the Left thinks they have sufficient control of the voting machines, I expect nationalization of energy so that the Government can get the total income from it. Of course that revenue will begin an incessant decline at that point as Enco et al become PEMEXUSA.

I certainly hope not. As it is, Kali's current condition is a good case study in collectivism and mushy liberal feel-thinking as applied to policy. It would be a shame if something capitalistic showed up at the last minute and saved them in such a way that it made collectivist central planning look better than it really is. People are stupid. They need their lessons to be crystal clear with no possibility of confusion.

30
posted on 02/05/2013 11:20:51 PM PST
by Still Thinking
(Freedom is NOT a loophole!)

Does anyone seriously believe that Kalifornia would allow oil or natural gas to be drilled for?

While California throws up a lot of road blocks to oil/gas drilling, they have not completely shut it down. There are currently 32 rigs drilling for oil in the state, one of those is offshore near long beach. The links below show 34 but if you look on the map two are geothermal wells.

You are correct in that it will not happen as in the Bakken region, but the NIMBY syndrome will not come from those who live within the oval drawn, as that area is both desolate and more conservative then the rest of the state. The Nimby syndrome will emanate from the red areas:

A lot depends on who is doing the estimates. The EIA has been wildly inaccurate in the past, pump and dump stock hypesters have been worse, and the USGS tends to be conservative in their estimates (they have a scientific reputation to maintain, unlike the others) until given reason to revise those estimates upward. It was so with the Bakken with the USGS, but if I was going to be venturing capital, I’d take USGS estimates over the others in a heartbeat.

40
posted on 02/07/2013 6:56:11 AM PST
by Smokin' Joe
(How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)

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